Ritual Of The Moon 4+

Beautifully illustrated, gorgeous music, lovely and mysterious to play. I feel so touched already, and I can’t wait to play more tomorrow!

The pitch of this game really had me interested. I’m normally not much of a gamer, but it has all the hooks I’d normally look for when I am playing: interesting and compelling story, beautiful art and music, having choices that matter, no fuss with needing to learn complicated mechanics, etc, etc. I was more than happy to give $10 to experience the compelling premise for myself.
On day 1 I found myself disappointed. I knew there would be little game play every day, but I didn’t realize it’d be as little as 2 activities: a memory game and choosing to destroy the Earth or not. I found it easy to forget to play the game as the content made itself incredibly forgettable. Many days I forgot to logged in and the days in which I did remember, I chose to destroy the earth.
It became clear to me as the game was heading to its conclusion that I was, in some ways, playing it “wrong”. The game began telling me that I could destroy the moon instead of living eternally to save the earth, which seemed like a strange effect that did not at all line up with my actions. I was happy to destroy the earth. The mysterious council had banished me there. On same days I felt pity, but more often than not I liked the idea of playing the character of the witch who’s spite led her to want to destroy the whole planet. I only felt more compelled towards this ending as the game itself seemed to suggest that I was not making the kinds of decisions the creators would expect of me.
By the end of it all, the game ended as anticlimactically as it began. I felt nothing as I watched the Earth exploded. Perhaps I had given myself too high of expectations to hope this would be the kind of game that would make me feel, to make me regret my actions. Yet there was little lore offered and I didn’t feel particularly attached to the world. Asides from a few throwaway lines about Melinda, we learned incredibly little about the witch and the planet she once lived on.
I think the idea for this game is great. I love the visuals. I love the music. I just think it’s lacking in substance: a lot of it. I was hoping with the small amount of content being given each day I would learn something new and valuable about our protagonist and the characters who had banished her here, but instead I received a lot of repeated lines. I found that particularly strange since it’s only 28 days in length.
I don’t know. I wish I liked it. I really wanted to.